The present disclosure relates to a gas turbine engine, and more particularly to a cooling circuit with a dead ended rib geometry.
A gas turbine engine includes one or more turbine stages each with a row of turbine rotor blades secured to an outer perimeter of a rotor disk and a stationary turbine nozzle assembly adjacent thereto with a row of stator vanes. Hot combustion gases flow along the stator vanes and the turbine blades such that the turbine vanes and turbine blades are typically internally cooled with compressor air bled from a compressor section through one or more internal cooling passages or other types of cooling circuits contained therein.
The serpentine cooling passages or other types of cooling circuits often include a dead ended rib which may be subject to stress concentrations from the centrifugal forces applied to the dead ended rib. Although current designs may be effective, further reductions in stress concentrations facilitate an increase in Low Cycle Fatigue life, increased fracture life, and improved overall durability of such actively cooled components.